This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Brett Pesce
New Jersey Devils Defense
The 88th percentile of chances in Carolina, nine seasons of shutdown minutes, and 39 goals in 627 games.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-16 | CAR | 69 | 4 | 12 | 16 | -7 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 85 | 4.7 | 18:46 |
| 2016-17 | CAR | 82 | 2 | 18 | 20 | +23 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 109 | 1.8 | 21:12 |
| 2017-18 | CAR | 65 | 3 | 16 | 19 | -6 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 88 | 3.4 | 20:54 |
| 2018-19 | CAR | 73 | 7 | 22 | 29 | +35 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 98 | 7.1 | 20:29 |
| 2019-20 | CAR | 61 | 4 | 14 | 18 | +7 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 104 | 3.9 | 21:53 |
| 2020-21 | CAR | 55 | 4 | 21 | 25 | +14 | 20 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 89 | 4.5 | 22:48 |
| 2021-22 | CAR | 70 | 7 | 21 | 28 | +5 | 39 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 148 | 4.7 | 21:42 |
| 2022-23 | CAR | 82 | 5 | 25 | 30 | +11 | 43 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 144 | 3.5 | 22:01 |
| 2023-24 | CAR | 70 | 3 | 10 | 13 | +10 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 107 | 2.8 | 20:17 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 627 | 39 | 159 | 198 | +92 | 227 | 4 | 0 | 10 | 972 | 4.0 | 21:05 |
This Season So Far
The 2024-25 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
70 games in Carolina, 3 goals and 10 assists for 13 points, 20 penalty minutes, 20:17 a night and plus-10. He took 55.1 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,218 minutes, the 88th percentile, and his ice went 46-50 against an expectation of 56.69-46.11, all of it with the Hurricanes.
Eleven goals of scoring that did not arrive and four more conceded than the chances called for. Carolina finished last in the league at finishing and this is one of the places it shows; an 88th-percentile chance share that produced a 46-50 ledger is not a defensive failure.
The Finesse Game
107 shots at a median of 53 feet with 79 per cent from beyond 40, converted at 2.8 per cent against a career 4.01.
159 career assists in 627 games and 39 goals. There is no offence and there is no power play. What he does with the puck is give it to a forward in the first second he has it and get back to the blue line.
The Physical Game
He is 6-3 and 206 and defends with a long stick and a very early gap.
227 career penalty minutes in 627 games at a career 21:05 a night is one of the lowest rates in the league for that workload. He blocks shots, clears the crease and kills penalties, and he does not hit to hurt.
The Intangibles
A third-round pick in 2013 out of Tarrytown, New York, nine seasons and 627 games, all of it in Carolina, at a career plus-92.
He is 29 and has killed penalties for a club that finished first in the league at it. New Jersey has bought the least visible and probably the most useful defenceman available last summer.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 1,218 minutes
- Expected goals
- 55.1%
- 88th pct
- Shot attempts
- 58.4%
- 97th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 46 for, 50 against. Expected: 56.7 and 46.1.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 18 points of one another. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason.
Both bars are percentiles among the 379 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 70 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2023-24 with CAR · 1218 minutes at five-on-five
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2023-24
- The club
- CAR took 56.6% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 55.1% — 1.5 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second pair, 1,218 minutes at five-on-five — 84th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brady Skjei | 54.0% | 60.1% | 53.0% |
| Jordan Martinook | 53.0% | 56.0% | 62.5% |
| Jordan Staal | 58.0% | 54.1% | 62.3% |
54.0% together, 60.1% for him apart and 53.0% for Skjei apart. He was better away from Skjei, who was no worse away from him — the pairing cost him more than it cost Skjei.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
186 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 3 of them goals. His median goal came from 37 feet. 5% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 79% from beyond forty.